Video: Using improved selecting and masking

Making a good selection or a good mask is an essential skill in Photoshop. Whether you're working on a composite, dropping part of a photo onto a different background, whether you are doing selective editing, or whether you are trying to limit an adjustment layer to just a particular area of the photo. In past versions of Photoshop, you may have found it challenging to select soft edges that are composed of fine detail like this model's hair and particularly if the object you were trying to select also had some edges of sharper contrast, like the smooth edge of this model's skin, you are going to find that all of that is easier to do in Photoshop CS5 either in the Refined Edge dialog box when you're creating a selection, or in the similar Mask Edge dialog box if you're working on a layer mask.

In Photoshop CS5 New Features, author Jan Kabili introduces new features and productivity enhancements that include reshaping images with Puppet Warp, turning photographs into paintings, and Content-Aware Fill options. The course examines CS5 enhancements to existing features include significant improvements to High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo processing, selection and mask edge refinement, and lens-related photo corrections. A brief overview of companion applications, Adobe Bridge CS5 and Adobe Camera Raw 6, is included. Exercise files are included with the course.

Topics include:

Performing Content-Aware Fill and spot healing

Painting realistic brush strokes with bristle brush tips

Blending paint with canvas colors with the Mixer Brush tool

Selecting hair and other soft edges with fine detail or edges with sharp contrast

Using improved selecting and masking

Making a good selection or a good mask is an essential skill in Photoshop.Whether you're working on a composite, dropping part of a photo onto a differentbackground, whether you are doing selective editing, or whether you are tryingto limit an adjustment layer to just a particular area of the photo.In past versions of Photoshop, you may have found it challenging to select softedges that are composed of fine detail like this model's hair and particularlyif the object you were trying to select also had some edges of sharper contrast,like the smooth edge of this model's skin, you are going to find that all ofthat is easier to do in Photoshop CS5 either in the Refined Edge dialog box whenyou're creating a selection, or in the similar Mask Edge dialog box if you'reworking on a layer mask.

And by the way, a layer mask and a selection are basically the same thing.They're just two different ways to visually represent transparency in Photoshop,and so the same technology applies to both.In this case, I have a model on a white background and I'd like to drop her ontoa different background.This photo of a sunset that I took in Colorado and that I dragged into this document.So what I need to do is select the model and then mask away the white that surround her.If you're working along with me with the Exercise Files, you can just load aselection that I've already made for you to save you some time.

If you're working on your own image, you are welcome to use any of the Selectiontools that you familiar with from the last versions of Photoshop to make aninitial selection of the model.I'll load this selection I've already made from the Select > Load Selection command.I am going to choose the model channel and click OK.Notice that I've deliberately left some of the hair outside of theselection boundary.I did that because I found that the refinements I am about to make in RefineEdge dialog box work better when I start with an initial selection like this.

The next step is to open the Refine Edge dialog box.I'll go to the Layers panel and I'll select the model layer and then I'mgoing to go up to the Options bar for any one of the Selection tools andclick the Refine Edge button there, or I could go to the Select menu and Icould choose Refine Edge.You may be familiar with the Refine Edge dialog box from previous versions ofPhotoshop but there have been some major changes to this dialog in Photoshop CS5.I'd like to show you those and show you how I would use this dialog to refine myinitial selection so that it fits well with the soft edges of the model's hairand with the higher contrast edges of her skin.

I'll start with the View menu.Here I'll choose the way that I'd like to view the selection mask while I'm refining it.There are seven options here.The first five of which were available in Photoshop CS4.The two new options are down here.Reveal Layer simply shows the image as if it were not masked or selected and Idon't use this very often, but I do like this new On Layers view.Here I can see the area that I've selected already against the content of the layers below.

I like this view because when I am making a composite image as I am here, it'smost like my final result so I know where I'm going with this selection.By the way, if I weren't making composite but I was just trying to selectsomething out of a single layer, I might use one of these views, the On Blackview, which shows the selected area against black or the On White view whichshows the same area against white depending on which view show the highestcontrast around the selection edge and the Black & White view is also sometimes useful.This basically is showing me the selection as a grayscale mask.

For now I am going to click on the On Layers view and by the way, if I wanted tocycle through these views, I could do that by pressing F on my keyboard.To close this menu, I am going to click in a blank area of the Refine Edge dialog.I'll start by seeing if I need to refine the smooth edges along the model's skin.It looks pretty good here at 100% view but I'm going to zoom in for a closerlook by going to the Zoom tool in the Refine Edge dialog box and with that tool,clicking on the edge of the model's skin.Here I see that I probably could smooth this out a bit.

To do that, I'm going to go to the Adjust Edge sliders in the Refine Edge dialog box.These are similar to the controls in the Photoshop CS4 Refine Edge dialog.So I won't spend a lot of time on them but I will go to the Smooth slider anddrag that just slightly to the right to smooth the edge of the selection in thisarea, and I might feather the edge a little bit as well which blurs it for amore convincing composite against the sunset background, and then I'll go backto 100% view by double- clicking the Zoom tool in the dialog.

I am going to move Refine Edge dialog over to the right a bit so that I get abetter view of my image as I start to refine the fine detail at the soft edgeof the model's hair.This is where Photoshop CS5 really shines.The important controls for this purpose are located in the Edge Detection areaof the Refine Edge dialog.I'll start with the Radius slider, clicking-and-dragging it to the right.Notice that as I do so, I'm bringing back more and more of the fine detail inthe edges of the model's hair.

If I take it all the way over to the right, I get a lots of the detail back butI'm also getting something that I don't want.If I take a look down here near the high contrast edges of the model's skin, Ican see that I am starting to see some of the mountains in the backgroundbreaking through her shirt and her skin.So what I'm looking for with the Radius slider is a sweet spot that gives meplenty of detail up here but doesn't allow the background to break through down here.So I am going to back off on the Radius slider a bit.

You might think that moving the Radius slider is directly changing the selectionedge but it is not doing that.Instead the Radius slider determines the thickness of a border that's beingcreated on either side of my initial selection edge.And within that border Photoshop is automatically making edge refinements tobring more detail into the soft edges of the model's hair.The radius value that I choose is the maximum number of pixels in each directionfrom that initial selection edge in which Photoshop is refining my selection.

I can actually see that border if I want to by going up to the Show Radiuscheckbox here in the Refine Edge dialog and checking that box.This confirms that there is a pretty thick border not only around the hair whereI want that border but also around the smooth edges of the model's skin.While this thick refinement border is good for refining the selection around thehair, it can bring in unwanted background details around the harder edges.So what I'd like to have is a relatively wide refinement border around a hairbut a narrower refinement border along the hard edges of her skin and that'sexactly what the new Smart Radius feature in Photoshop CS5 can produce for me.

Here in the Refine Edge dialog, all I have to do is check Smart Radius.Keep your eye on the document as I do this and you'll see Photoshopautomatically change the width of the refinement border keeping it relativelywide around the hair but narrowing it down here along the high contrast edges.I am going to uncheck Show Radius so I can see the effect of this on the image.I think things still look pretty good but I'd like to do a little morerefinement and I can do that using another new feature in the Refine Edgedialog, the refinement touch-up brushes.

Those are located here behind this icon.I have two brushes.The Refine Radius tool, which I can use to bring back some more detail at theedge of the hair, and it's opposite, the Erase Refinements tool.These two brushes are useful for making small, localized changes tothe refinement border.I'll start with the Refine Radius tool and with that tool, I'll go into theimage, make my brush a little bigger by pressing the right bracket key severaltimes and I'll move it over the edges of the hair.And as I do I start to see more and more hair come back into the picture.

Now if I'm not sure where the hair is located, I can always go back to the Viewmenu and choose the Reveal Layer view and now I can see exactly where thoseextra hairs are and I can even paint in this view.I might go over here and do the same on the side, and again I'm not moving theselection edge, I'm just increasing the size of the refinement border usingthis touch-up brush.

I am going go back to the On Layers view and then I'm going to come into thisarea between the neck and the left thumb and I am going to paint a little bit inthere because I think there's more hair to bring back.But notice that I went a little too far and now I have some artifacts thatI really don't want.I did that on purpose so that I could show you how the other touch-up brush works.I am going to select that second brush, the Erase Refinements tool, come intothe image, and I'll make my brush a little smaller by pressing the left bracket key.

And I am going to remove that refinement that I just placed there to get rid of that artifact.And there is a little bit here as well on the model's thumb and sothat's how I would use this two touch-up brushes to fine-tune the edge refinement border.So at this point, I think I have a pretty good selection with lots of detail inthe hair and smooth edges along the model's skin, but there's still one problem.If you look closely at the model's hair, you'll see that there is some whitearound some of the strands of her hair.

This color contamination is coming from the white background that wasoriginally around the model.Fortunately in Photoshop CS5, there is another new feature in the Refine Edgedialog that will take care of this problem for me and that is theDecontaminate Colors feature.To enable that, all I have to do is go over to the Output section of the RefineEdge dialog, and click in the Decontaminate Colors checkbox.Then I'll go to the Amount slider, and I'll click-and-drag to the right.When I release that slider, most of the color contamination has disappeared from the image.

The color decontamination feature has analyzed the contaminating color andreplaced it with colors that are more central to my selection.The way this works is that Photoshop is actually changing out the color ofpixels rather than just adding a mask.That's the kind of destructive editing that I often try to avoid when I amworking in Photoshop but in this case it can't be helped and I think it's worth the price.The last thing to do here is to output my resulting selection.I'll do that from the Output To menu, if I click that menu, I see that there area couple of options here Selection and Layer Mask that are grayed out.

The reason those aren't available to me is that I have enabled thisDecontaminate Colors checkbox and because decontaminating colors does changeactual pixels, I can't save the results of my work as a straight selection orlayer mask on an existing layer, but what I can do is create a new layer or anew layer With layer mask a new document or a new document With layer mask.I am going to choose New Layer with Layer Mask.I am also going to click Remember Settings so that if I decide to come back intothis dialog box with this image Photoshop will remember the settings for all ofthe controls as I have them here.

I am going to click OK to close Refine Edge and I can see now in my Layerspanel, I not only have my original model layer but I also have a new model layercontaining a layer mask that reflects all of the refinements that I just made tomy initial selection.I'll show you that layer mask by holding the Option or Alt key and clicking onthe mask and you can see that the mask has smooth edges along the model's skinas well as lots of detail around the model's hair.I will Option+click or Alt+click again on that layer mask to go back to the regular view.

I no longer have need for this extra model layer so I am going to drag it to thelayer trash and I'm very pleased with this rather difficult selection which havebeen difficult to accomplish in previous versions of Photoshop but was a snapusing the new features in the Refine Edge dialog in Photoshop CS5.

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